EISPIRATEN

I'm used to living in the foothills of the San Gabriels (about 100 yards away from the Cherry Canyon hike in La Canada), but now I work in Bakersfield so I live up here from Monday - Friday. Between that and the summer heat I've been getting out of hiking shape, so my goal is to start finding some nice hikes to do after work up here. Anyone have any good recommendations? I can't do anything too long as I only have a couple hours of day light, but if there's a really nice longer hike I might be able to leave work early to learn it once or twice, then start doing it at night time.

(And hello to the forum, I used to read it all the time but never made an account, then started working in Bako and missed the last couple months of posts / trip reports). I figured I should make an account if I'm going to get back in to exploring the local mountains.)

The trouble with only a few hours of light to work with after work is that most of the closer stuff is a bit warm right now. One of the closest options when the weather is cooler is the Wind Wolves Preserve however they have limited hours and it's too hot right now. The HPS list has route descriptions for quite a few peaks some of which might just barely fit into the time frame. The closest ones would be around Frazier Park (Frazier Mtn, Mt Pinos, Tecuya, Liebre Mtn, etc.). Other nearby peaks in the NE direction from Bakersfield include Sunday and Bohna Peaks (near Alta Sierra) and Bald Eagle, Nicolls, Heald, Onyx, etc.) near Lake Isabella. There's also a few peaks around Tehachapi. If you do any mountain biking the hills north of Hart Park have some fun trails. Keysville by Lake Isabella is fun too.

-Rick

Thanks for all the suggestions, it looks like everything is at least a 45 min - 1hr drive. Probably not doable after work, but definitely a lot of good hikes to check out on the weekend.